The Armored Saint (The Sacred Throne #1) by Myke Cole

Heloise is just an ordinary girl who helps her father, who does a lot of scribing work. They're well respected in their village, but all is not well in this world where an Inquisition-type organisation known as the Order hunts wizards. After all, it's thanks to wizards and their magical meddling that demons can find their way into Heloise's world to wreak havoc.

The Armored Saint by Myke Cole is the first in a trilogy of stories, and I will say this much: I was drawn right into the world. Cole likes to take your preconceptions, turn them on their head, and then when he lulls you into a false sense of hope, he pulls the metaphorical rug from under your feet. Heloise as a protagonist is earnest yet awkward and her mistakes and missteps only add to the greater unfolding disaster.

She and her community face real horrors, where a religious authority holds great sway over their lives so that ordinary, good people are often coerced into doing bad things in the name of good – and Heloise questions the way things are done, and the outcomes of her doubt are not always to her advantage.

That which, at first, seems fair may be foul, and that which is foul may really be a last bastion of hope against the forces of evil – and ignorance of the way things actually as opposed to how one may wish them to be are may well prove deadly. There is a lesson here.

As far as fantasy novellas go, this one gripped me from the start, and the next book in the trilogy is an insta-buy for me. If you like your fantasy gritty and demon-haunted, then look no further than this offering.

Demonologia Biblica edited by Dean M Drinkel

Title: Demonologia Biblica
Edited by Dean M Drinkel
Publisher: Western Legends Publishing, 2013

So far as anthologies of speculative fiction go, this one’s a mixed bag; not all the stories were quite to my taste, but I’ll touch on the ones that did stand out for me, and also share a little bit about the one I wrote.

C is for Chordewa: Pet Therapy by Jan Edwards tells of a demonic cat that feeds on the lives of the terminally ill in a hospice. I think it’s the grinding inevitability of death that gave me a chill for this one. Especially how some of the patients still try to make a stand against the death-dealer.

Tracie McBredie’s E is for Eisheth stands out for me mostly because I know that whenever she’s at the pen, I’m in for a treat. This was no exception. The story oozes a brooding, oozing dark sensuality; the demon Eisheth seduces humans and slowly steals their vitality. They are addicted to the very thing that is slowly killing them.

Simon Kurt Unsworth is a master of horror, and with his H is for Hrace, he’s certainly in top form with the creepiness factor. I’ll never quite look at a circle of standing stones in quite the same way again. Also, yikes, the oppressive atmosphere … it was a relief when, well … The totally unexpected happened.

My story is S is for Sitakh: Old Scratch will be a treat for those of you who’re familiar with my Books of Khepera. This little tale features my favourite unrepentant black magician, Jamie. The premise is simple: what if Christians who failed to exorcise a demon turned to a demon-possessed occult practitioner to do the job?

Of course things don’t quite according to plan for Jamie, and he has some unintended results. His solution to the problem is, well … inventive.

W is for Wolf: Urban Wolf by Sam Stone had an unexpected twist that I appreciated. Maybe it’s because I’m intimately acquainted with the advertising industry that I found this tale to be particularly nasty and delightful.

Granted, there are 26 stories collected here, so other readers are bound to find some that stand out more for them than others. Pulling together any anthology is no joke, and a lot of work goes into a project of this nature. (I’m speaking from personal experience here.)

So, if you’re looking for infernal entertainment of this kind, then this collection of brimstone-laced may offer you what you’re in the mood for. Even better, you might discover new authors who appeal to you (and that’s always good motivation to dip into a short story collection).